A Survival Guide for a Counselor in the Apocalypse Chapter 99

Chapter 99

 

At those words, a cold silence settled over the chat itself.

I could roughly guess what kind of “event” Shin Giyeon was talking about.

Using mutated variants.

‘Seems like it’s about time those started roaming around too.’

When I escaped Hermadion, it was already long after Chapter 10 of the Apocalypse had opened.

Shin Giyeon called it an “event,” but it was closer to an agent.

Of course, among agents, they were the lowest-tier ones.

If they could scare you and eat you, great. If not, whatever.

To begin with, if you just quietly observed those kinds of events, you could find plenty of strange inconsistencies.

They’d sit still, stand still, cry, or try to talk to you… But since the “Third Parties” didn’t put much effort or detail into their setup, within a few minutes, they’d forget all their prompts, like an AI resetting back to the beginning.

These types don’t cost much to contract, nor do they require much to maintain.

Of course, it’s different if someone manages them diligently.

Among the “Third Parties,” the ones who actually use them well are the “Hunter of the Eastern Trap” and the “Happy Trap Researcher.”

Aside from them, most “Third Parties” actually find those kinds of agents distasteful and avoid them.

But that case and our current situation are very different.

‘I know that much.’

I exhaled a long stream of smoke.

Originally, events operated on a space-based scale.

They required a minimum area to function.

Still, I understood what Shin Giyeon was trying to say.

As the chat remained tense, she added another message.

 

— 

Shin Giyeon

Of course, I’m not saying the place you’re at is like that… I just brought it up to share information!!

Actually, we haven’t entered one of those event spaces, so I don’t know for sure, but from what other family members said… it sounds pretty terrifying

My uncle said he saw hallucinations

And those hallucinations actually made him feel calm, like he was inside an incubator, making him feel happy

It was kind of creepy (4:08 PM)

— 

 

Judging by how Shin Giyeon kept talking like this without saying she’d come, she also thought this place was suspicious.

I didn’t reply and just quietly exhaled cigarette smoke.

I felt it too.

And more than anything…

I felt like I was the strangest one here.

 

— 

[Yes, that’s right. The narrator is also very strange.]

[Don’t you also want to stay in this place?]

— 

 

That was true.

This place, strangely enough, made you want to just sit still.

Like your mind was slowly melting into drowsiness.

As I absentmindedly exhaled smoke, I stared at the [Status] window.

It showed nothing.

It’s strange… really strange… but I can’t resist it.

That’s the biggest problem.

That feeling of your limbs loosening, going slack.

‘…I’m not in a position to judge anyone else.’

Still…

‘This isn’t an event.’

If it were an event, there’s no way I’d be able to communicate with Shin Giyeon like this.

That was what lowered my guard the most, that this wasn’t an event space.

The phone signal still showed three bars.

 

***

 

Dawn.

I woke up unusually early and blankly lifted my head.

Another one of those damn orphanage dreams.

As I reached upward to check the clock, I suddenly saw someone standing by the window.

“…Hey.”

It was Lee Hoin.

He was standing there, staring outside.

Did this bastard develop sleepwalking or something?

Startled, I got up and grabbed his shoulder.

He immediately grabbed my hand tightly and made a shushing sound.

Then he pointed to one side.

There, I saw the owner alone, carrying something as if heading somewhere.

What he was carrying was a sack.

A huge sack.

It seemed too heavy for him alone, as he was dragging it along the ground.

Lee Hoin watched it for a moment, then turned toward the door.

I also turned without a word.

Something was definitely going on.

Click.

As we opened the door, the hallway was silent… everyone asleep.

We moved down the quiet hallway without making a single sound.

The living room was empty.

Around this time, Kim Sungho would usually be patrolling, keeping watch.

We quickly headed for the front door.

We didn’t need to say anything.

The time we’d spent together made it that way.

Click.

Clack.

The moment we unlocked and opened the door…

“…!”

Lee Hoin, who had been stepping forward, suddenly froze and shut his mouth.

Fuck.

Seriously, fuck.

“…Where are you going?”

Kim Sungho was standing there, quietly looking down at us.

Right in front of the door.

As if he had been waiting for it to open.

I exhaled sharply.

What the hell. Seriously.

As I stood there wide-eyed and silent, Lee Hoin spoke.

“We were feeling stuffy, so we’re going for a walk.”

“A walk…”

Kim Sungho kept staring at us.

Despite his sharp, piercing gaze, he unexpectedly stepped aside without resistance.

This is what I hated about this place.

Whenever you tried to uncover something, someone would appear and interfere.

But if you ignored them and tried to dig deeper, they’d just step aside obediently.

It was too strange.

It made me feel like I was the one being paranoid.

“Be careful.”

With that, Kim Sungho went back inside.

We nodded once and immediately started moving.

The owner was already out of sight.

It was the perfect situation to lose the trail.

We first headed toward the loach soup restaurant.

Then suddenly, Lee Hoin looked down.

“Here.”

There were faint drag marks on the ground, along with slightly damp soil.

It was too dark to tell exactly what it was.

We just followed the intermittent dragging marks.

Step by step, we moved deeper into the mountainside.

Why did she have to go into a mountainside at this hour… and how did the owner even get there…

I had no idea.

As we followed quietly, the owner suddenly emerged from somewhere without the sack.

It wasn’t even clear exactly where he had gone in.

He just appeared out of nowhere and headed back home.

That was it.

“Ha, fuck…”

Lee Hoin ran a hand through his hair and headed toward the spot where the owner had come out.

There was still nothing there.

Even up close… There was really nothing.

At least, that’s how it looked.

I gently pulled Lee Hoin back and reached my hand toward the space where the owner had gone in.

 

— 

[Haha, this is like a suspense thriller, isn’t it?]

[Your hand…]

[is going in.]

[What could this space possibly be?]

— 

 

Half of my hand passed through.

But…

I couldn’t see it.

I was just reaching into empty air, yet half of my hand had disappeared.

There was something beyond this.

Lee Hoin shook his head.

“…Should’ve brought a sword.”

As he muttered that, I handed him a dagger from my palm and took a step inside.

And what I saw… was a corridor that looked like the inside of some sticky organ.

 

—

 

Drip, drip.

Something viscous was falling to the ground.

Like mucus.

The walls were a tangled mass of folds, red like the inside of an organ.

And the smell… a sour, rotten, nauseating stench.

It was enough to make something rise in my throat.

Rotting flesh?

Spoiled blood?

Food waste?

Something like that.

I turned on my phone flashlight and looked around…

“Ugh…”

At what he saw, Lee Hoin gagged.

I also barely swallowed back what was rising in me and frowned.

All around us were skeletons and half-rotting corpses.

The half-rotting corpses looked like they were being digested, embedded into the walls.

What the hell is this?

Looking closely at one skeleton… the skull was very similar to a human’s.

But the difference was… its limbs and fingers were abnormally long.

This wasn’t human.

The fingers were so long they could be mistaken for entirely different bones.

 

— 

[Oh? Interesting. What kind of bones could these be?]

— 

 

I stared at it more closely… and slowly realized.

They were mutant bones.

‘…Why are mutant bones here?’

I moved deeper inside.

The further in I went, the more varied the bones became.

Some even looked like animal bones.

And at the very center… There was a dark red sphere.

And beneath it… a sack, probably the one the owner had just brought.

I lifted the sack.

And what fell out…

Thud, thud.

Severed heads.

Mutant heads.

“Ah, fuck…”

Behind me, Lee Hoin kept gagging repeatedly.

Inside the sack were all severed corpses.

About three mutants’ worth.

Whoever cut them was skilled with a blade… the pieces looked like clean joint cuts, falling apart neatly.

Above us, something inside the dark red sphere writhed.

The smell grew stronger, sour and nauseating enough to make my head ache.

Lee Hoin had progressed from gagging to vomiting stomach acid.

Bones were scattered all around.

And at that moment…

I heard someone approaching from far away.

Flicker. Flicker.

The light they carried blinked at regular intervals as they came closer.